Friday, December 26, 2014

8 Things I Do ~ Walk or Yoga in a Morning Fasting State

I have found fasting to be fairly helpful in fat loss, increased aerobic performance, improved recovery and general overall better health.

From dinner or a late night snack to waking, there is a 8-12 hour "fast" already. So, I typically have a cup of black coffee and then do a 20-30 minute round of easy yoga and walk the dog briskly, maybe light jogging a little even.

Then I will normally eat a 800-1000 calorie breakfast high in fats and protein with minimal carbs and zero simple sugars.

I'm not doing any 6am long endurance training, high intensity interval training or heavy weightlifting. If I was I would not do those in a fasted state and would take calories to consume while training. It would depend on the total overall length of training and how quickly I could eat after training. I'd say 2 hours or more and I would absolutely take in some calories. What I consume during exercise is less of a concern from a sugar standpoint as insulin production is normally "turned off" during exercise (It's a bit more complicated than that)

This is a skill to be developed and I'd say it's mostly a mental skill as I have access to food pretty much 24/7/365, unlike humans tens of thousands of years ago, or even humans in most parts of the world today. The body has enough stores of carbs (~2,000 calories) and fat (~50,000 calories) to have no problem fueling easy aerobic training in a fasted state.

Not dumping carbs into the body early in the morning also aids in not having mid-morning cravings or overeating at lunch. There is no blood sugar drops, no need for more coffee, no need for sugars at lunch and as a result no mid-afternoon crash or nap needed after lunch. A completely successful day begins with a good start in the morning.

Knowing all of that, there really is no reason to need to eat before an easy workout. Just like there is no reason to need to consume a gel or carb drink during a 5k run (or even a marathon) if properly fat-adapated, which is my goal in adding this fasting to my practice.

I read and answer all emails ~ douglashilbert@yahoo.com

For all "Letters to My Son" blogs ~ doughilbert.blogspot.com


No comments:

Post a Comment